CaaS Migration to Premise Based

A CaaS deployment offers tremendous flexibility and accommodates growth and change in companies nicely. In fact, many companies choose CaaS specifically because it reduces the need to support a variety of different systems at a time when resources are limited or time is critical. It also helps companies who are experiencing rapid growth, attempting to take advantage of short-term opportunities, or in the midst of significant change. (Download - A New Approach to Communications as a Service (CaaS) Whitepaper)

However, as time goes on, some companies may find that their needs have changed so substantially that bringing the communications center back on premise makes sense, both logistically and financially. Perhaps a move to a new building is nearing completion or a large contract has been won with specific stipulations that require on-site telecommunications.

What does the process of migrating from a CaaS deployment to a premise-based solution look like? The answer varies greatly depending on the combination of CaaS and on-premise solutions chosen. Let’s examine two primary situations:

Transition from CaaS provider to premise-based solution with similar software or equipment

Migration from CaaS provider to premise–based solution with dissimilar software or equipment

A transition from a CaaS solution to an on-premise system will largely be affected by the extent of the built-in functionality of the CaaS and on-premise systems. However, even when those features are incompatible or not robust, using traditional cutover transition plans will produce good results. You will just need more time and planning to ensure a successful transition.If you’re fortunate, you selected your CaaS provider carefully and evaluated their ability to support a CaaS to on-premise transition.

Transition from CaaS provider to premise-based solution with similar software or equipment

In a perfect world, you would just pick up the server at the CaaS provider and install it at the customer premise. Until recently, that option was virtually unheard of. However, one company (Interactive Intelligence) offers a Local Control VoIP Model as part of its Interactive Contact Center Services offering. In this deployment, the exact software and configuration running in the CaaS data center can be placed onto a server and delivered to the customer’s premises. Since this is an image of the server the customer is currently running in production, concerns about software versions or loading and configuring the software from scratch are non-existent.

Migration from CaaS provider to premise-based solution with dissimilar software or equipment

Behind the scenes, most CaaS providers assemble a variety of different systems and integrate them using custom interfaces and programming. An unfortunate consequence is that it is virtually impossible to extract data from the CaaS system so that it can be imported into the premise-based solution.

When the premise-based solution differs greatly from the CaaS solution, both the customer and the CaaS provider may have limited options. The customer will need to use whatever reports and exports the current CaaS solution provides to document the environment and recreate it in whatever system they have chosen to use on-premise. Often data will need to be reformatted and additional information will need to be provided to match the new system’s input format. This is not a small task because each system likely stores and tracks data in dissimilar manners.

The new provider of the premise-based solution will also likely provide some services to help make the transition, however these services are usually part of a services contract and can become expensive. Some of this work may be accomplished by in-house staff to reduce the cost of these services, but often companies lack enough staff to devote to this effort or lack people with the right skills and knowledge.